Educational Concepts of Tagore (Rabindra Nath Tagore)

 

Rabindra Nath Tagore

 Rabindranath Tagore was a great Poet, Philosopher, Artist, Playwright, novelist, Composer and social and cultural activist. He was a great educator of the East who contributed to the theory and practice of education. Tagore can be called India’s true naturalist educationist, with idealistic outlook, who loved children most. He turned rebel in to the contemporary educational practice. He stood for the emancipation of the child and emphasized child’s right to live on his own. He asserted that teachers must possess an international cultural outlook of humanity in their all attitude and thought. Tagore happens to be the first educator in the world who felt that the teacher will have to play a new role in the international sphere because most of the problems a teacher faces on human cultural perspective are international.

 Life Sketch

Born:   7 May 1861,    Kolkota (Calcutta), India

Died:   7 August 1941 Kolkota.

Born to:  He was born the thirteenth of fourteen children of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi.

Rabindra Nath Tagore was born in an economically sound, aristocratic family of Kolkota. Though reared with high reputations, he experienced loneliness in early days. He was interested to sit alone watching the nature and dreaming about it.

Seeking to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, England in 1878. After that he studied at University College London, but returned to Bengal in 1880 without a degree.

In 1890, he began to manage his family's estates in Shilaidaha (a region now in Bangladesh) and Santiniketan. In 1901, Tagore found an ashram at Santiniketan, and an experimental school with groves of trees, gardens, and a library.

Tagore, who also known by the name Gurudev, had won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was the first Asian who received it. Tagore also accepted knighthood from the British Crown. (He renounced his knighthood in protest against the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre).

He was thinking of a new type of university in which he desired to blend all culture of this world harmoniously.  He established Visva-Barathy.  Visva-Bharati—had its foundation stone laid on 22 December 1918; it was later inaugurated on 22 December 1921. Now it is a unique university in the world in its kind.

 Works

Tagore's works included numerous novels, short-stories, collection of songs, dance-drama, political and personal essays. Some of them are Bhikharini (1877; The Beggar Woman—the Bengali language's first short story) and Sandhya Sangit (1882) Naivedya (1901) and Kheya (1906).

The major works are;

The Ideal One – Manasi(1890), The Sacrifice – Visarjan(1890)

The Golden Boat – Sonar Tari(1894)

The Broken Nest - Nastanirh (1901)

Fair-Faced - Gora (1910), Song Offerings – Gitanjali(1910)

The Post Office- Dak Ghar (1912), The Immovable - Achalayatan (1912),

Wreath of Songs – Gitmalya(1914)

The Flight of Cranes – Balaka(1916)

The Waterfall – Muktadhara(1922)

Crosscurrents -  Yogayog(1929), and

Biographies - My Reminiscences- Jivansmriti(1912) and My Boyhood Days – Chhelebela(1940)

 Educational philosophy

Tagore was not a full-time educationist. His educational thinking and practices are the efforts to fulfill his intentions he expressed in his poems and essays.

Tagore developed his educational ideals on the basement of Eastern- specifically Indian- concept of education and culture. At the same time he purposely blended it with Western philosophical outlook and practices. His interpretations on idealistic and naturalistic principles were possessed genuine clarifications of his own way of thought, which is extremely different from other naturalists and idealists. As far as his educational philosophy is concerned we can call him a rue naturalist.

 He emphasized education to self-help and intellectual uplift of the masses. To cure the “political symptom of India’s social disease”, he suggested a solution that was steady and purposeful education. He was against the rote-oriented education. Child must be able to contribute to his own learning. Education is a natural development.

In education he aimed the development of man’s love of nature and harmony with nature’s creations. He strongly believed on the Indian concept of unity of creations and man’s relationship with nature. Man has kinship with nature’s creations. Realization of this kinship is the aim of education. To acquire this, he suggested education should be carried on in natural surroundings. 

Education is not a process of giving and taking knowledge. It is not a communication process, but an interaction process. In this interaction ‘mind’ of the teacher, which has strong kinship with nature and its creations, descends in the mind of the pupil. In true education significance is not to the curriculum, text book, organization and infrastructure or equipment but to the living contact and interaction between teacher and pupils. Education is a common venture for individual’s harmonious development by organizers, teachers and significantly of students.

Education must emphasis the commitment of each individual to the community, each community to the nation, each nation to the world or to this nature. Service to community is considered as a major aim of education by Tagore.

Education, Tagore believed, is not a programme to build up sound scholars: it is a process to develop a sound man. Sound man should come before sound scholar. What is the use of a scholar if he does possess no humanity? This question is the fundamental explanation to Tagore’s ideals of educational practice. World of humanity needs no scholar but ‘men’. He founded Santiniketan School – The Peace Retreat, Sriniketan and Visva Barati as live examples to his educational ideals.

Principles and Scheme of Education

The educational ideals suggested for the conduct of Santiniketan can be considered the practical side of Tagore’s educational philosophy.

Visva-Barati was the extension of the ideals he tried to practice through the ashram and school at Santinekatan. He considered it a centre of worldly culture. Tagore implemented a brahmacharya pedagogical structure employing Gurus to provide individualized guidance for pupils at Visva-Barathy.

Tagore has an idea that every teacher should know every pupil and every pupil should know his or her teachers and fellow pupils. It is a must for hearty contact and interaction between teacher and pupils.

School should provide a family spirit. Santiniketan ensured such a spirit in its atmosphere. The delinquency and disobedience of the pupils must be treated with a family spirit. No child is treated as wrong child; only what he done is treated as wrong. Child who committed mistake must be well informed the mistake he done, and on what ground it is a mistake. On his confess and promise of reform he should be forgiven. If there is the need of punishment, there must have adjudication by boy court and boy judge formed in the school.

Education should ensure development of self confidence, strong ambition to withstand, strong will power and stability of mind. If it does not develop these qualities, it is not education at all.

The other practical principles he suggested are,

a.                   No one religion taught or practiced. He advocated universal religion aiming at the unification of mankind

b.                  He advocated vernacular language as the medium of instruction. Knowledge is better while it is absorbed in mother tongue.

c.                   Education should emphasis on culture of humanity, irrespective of national barriers.

d.                  Provisions for contact and interaction with nature, opportunities for the aesthetic expression like painting, music, dance, performing arts, festivals, rituals, etc should be criteria of education.

e.                   Highest aim of education that is unification of mankind should be associated with each step in education.

f.                   Child possesses godliness or child is purest

g.                  Discipline must develop in family spirit.

h.                  Discipline is the attitude towards good behaviour, social acceptance, self respect, respect for others, orderliness, cleanliness, honesty, modesty and etc.

i           Student deserves love and respect from others. He should be rendered with them without disparity. Individual attention should be paid to each individual.

We can see at all account Tagore suggested a new scheme of education to the world humanity. It is really a deviated one and unique in all aspects. That is why he treated as an educationist rather than a poet and writer. His educational contributions are paragon in their kinds and approaches.

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